Can Bloggers Have a Snow Day, Too?

For the past week, my husband and I have been snowbound in our home outside of Portland, Oregon. The Portland airport has tons of canceled flights. Businesses around the area are shut up tight, lights turned off or no electricity at all. Roads are closed, highways shut down, and life has come to a veritable stand still. And the weather continues to predict this unusual snowfall will continue for another week.

He was thrilled to have a snow day. Remember those from your childhood? If you lived in a part of the world with business closing snow storms, a snow day meant the schools were closed, winter clothing came on, sleds came out, and snow construction and fun would commence. It was a day filled with fun and laughter, getting wet and dirty, and having a grand time in the elements.

Somewhere in my early teens, I started creating snow sculptures for fun. I believe it started with Mary Poppins complete with wide brim feathered hat, apron, and umbrella. I’ve created dragons, bears, horses, guitars, giant mice, and a variety of characters in snow over the years, when the snowfall permitted. Unfortunately, much of my adulthood has been spent in extreme heat conditions where not a drop of snow would be caught within a thousand miles.

Living in non-snow day areas of the world, other weather events have closed down schools and businesses like floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, sand storms, dust storms, and ice storms. Living on the east coast, there were even a few days labeled by the Air Pollution Index as “black” which meant the air pollution levels were “severe” and people were asked not to drive and only for essential businesses and services to be open. While a “black” day meant no school in some areas, it didn’t mean the kids could race outside to play. All outdoor activity was restricted due to pollution. That’s not fun – unless you have plenty of entertainment in the house like computers and the Internet.

Many parts of the world have a few annual canceled school and work days due to weather-related events, but what about bloggers? Do we get snow days, too?

Bloggers Don’t Get Snow Days

While my husband has been working from home on the Internet, in between some fun in the snow, I’m a blogger. My job is blogging. My job is on the Internet. My job isn’t influenced by the weather. I don’t get snow days.

Sure, I make time for play. A day off is different from a snow day. A day off is planned. A snow day is unexpected, leaving you with a wide open slate to do whatever you want because you ain’t going to work.

My job doesn’t give me the ability to say, “Excuse me, I can’t get to the office to finish the project due to snow.” My office is in my home. I only have a few steps from bed to desk, and currently, no snow is expected to cross my path between the two.

My clients also don’t live in my neighborhood, nor local metropolitan area. Most of them live around the United States and the world. In the past three days, I’ve talked to clients and friends in Israel, Lebanon, France, the UK, Australia, Hawaii, Texas, Florida, California, New York, New Jersey, Alaska, Malaysia…the list goes on and on. While they appreciate the “how is the weather” small talk, they don’t care what the weather is like outside as long as the job is done.

So while I’d like to dig into that snow to create…hmmm…what creature would be interesting on my new lawn…a bird? Another dragon? A bear? Some monster or fairy tale come to life? Maybe I could create a …unfortunately, work takes a priority.

So I gaze out the window at the most marvelous snow scene I’ve seen in years, buried under the snow, ice icicles forming off the eaves, and wish I could have a snow day, too.

But then again, I have one of the best jobs in the world. So an unrequited snow day or two isn’t that big a deal. Is it?

Update: The electricity went off for a few hours, but it was dark, so I got to play inside, not outside. While bloggers might not get snow days, but we can have powerless days, right? Ah, maybe we need a new name for that. What would you call a day off due to lack of electricity?

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Comments

Heh… I was thinking about you earlier today and was going to ping you asking how you were liking the weather at your new home. That’s a nice sculpture in the photo. My only outside snow activity today was shoveling a walk and driveway :/

I’ve been through “Hurricane Days” myself. We called them “Hurricane Watch” (but you do not go out and look for hurricanes. It means there might be one within a few hundred miles or so.) and “Hurricane Warnings” (which I thought should be “Watch” but this isn’t a warning it’s a “coming to a beach near you now” alert). I always got those confused. Same with tornadoes. Tornado Watch and Tornado Warning. Totally mixed up, I think. :D